Passings
by viper676
Summary: Third Chapter up... Read&Review, please!
1. Passings

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A/N: Dedicated to the memory of my friend and classmate Asia Thorpe.

We miss you.

June Fifteenth, 2004

Chapter One

Passings

Nita woke early that summer morning to the sounds of birds cheeping away the last vestiges of night as the sky turned slowly from a flat gray to a beautiful blue-and-orange sunrise. She hugged her knees to her chest and looked at her alarm clock: 7:32 AM.

She stared at the alarm clock incredulously, unable to grasp the fact that she, Nita Callahan, the ultimate sleeper-in, had actually gotten up in time to have breakfast more than thirty minutes before lunch. A grin spread across her face, and she slowly, surprisingly willingly, swung her legs out of bed and went to go dress.

As she pulled on a pair of faded jeans and a gray T-shirt, she paused and listened to the sounds of the house. Judging by the lack of noise and the quiet atmosphere, and the even more surprising absence of the high-pitched TV whine, her family was still asleep.

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Huh, she thought. _That's weird. Normally Dad'd be up making coffee… or Dairine, at least, watching TV…_

Shrugging it off as nothing, she slipped quietly out of her bedroom and padded downstairs.

Exuberantly swinging herself around the end of the staircase, she shuffled into the kitchen, intent on making herself a batch of pancakes, when she stopped dead in her tracks.

Her dad was sitting on the floor next to the kitchen phone, his face in his hands, her aunt Annie beside him, soothing him. Her Area Seniors, Tom and Carl, watched Nita as she took in the scene before her startled gray eyes, and she saw expressions of huge pain cross their faces as she met their gaze.

"What happened?" she inquired nervously.

Her only answer was the hum of the refrigerator. Not remotely comforting.

"_What happened?_" she demanded, nearing sudden hysterics. "_Just tell me!_"

She felt someone put a hand on her shoulder, and she spun around to see who it was.

The look on Kit's face as he stared at her was unbelievable. Nita looked around at the assembled people and, her voice going shrill with panic, demanded, "_What's going on?!_"

Tom and Carl looked to Kit.

Kit looked at Nita's pale face, her wide, scared gray eyes, and shut his own. He couldn't tell her. How could he bring his best friend's hopes crashing to the ground, burning to nothing?

But there was nothing to be done.

"Nita…" he began, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "Nita… we… we just got a call from the hospital."

He gulped as Nita's nails sank into his arm. He forced himself to look at her, and his heart went out to her as he saw the tears dancing in her eyes.

"Don't tell me… no… Kit… _please_ don't tell me…"

"I'm really, _really_ sorry about this, Neets… your mom passed away early this morning."

Dead silence filled the room, then, in the only movement that was made, Nita collapsed into Kit's arms and began to sob quietly into his shoulder.


	2. Why?

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Chapter 2

Why…?

Nita wandered aimlessly through Central Park, her head down as she weaved her way down to the Bethesda Terrace, pacing toward a spot on the lake edge no one but her and Kit knew about. She sat down in the shade of a large elm tree, her back to the elm, looking out over the lake. She heaved a long, shuddering sigh and twisted around, looking at the initials carved into the trunk of the tree.

Her wandering fingers halted on a three pairs of initials carved just above a large boulder sitting by the tree. Nita stared at the engraved letters and whispered them, tracing them with her fingers as she did so.

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H.C

B.C.

N.C.

1991

She stared at the middle pair, and wished, for a moment, that she could tell the tree her mother was dead.

Oh… wait…

Dammit.

With a cry of frustration, she took a rock she had been fingering and threw it as far as she could out onto the lake.

Thirteen years had passed since her father, mother, baby Dairine and her had sat in this very spot on a warm Fourth of July weekend.

**__**

Flashback

Nita's mom gently touched her husband on the shoulder.

"Harry," she said carefully, "C'mere?"

Her father had obliged.

"Whatcha need, Betty?"

"Carve your initials into this tree, under mine?"

"Betty, I can't do that… this tree is a living thing!"

"Please? Just for me?"

Her father softened at the pleading expression on his wife's face.

"Oh… alright. Just this once."

He took a sharp rock and etched his initials into the tree trunk.

Nita stumbled cautiously up.

"Can I do one, too, Daddy?"

Her mother had laughed. "Of course you can. Here, let me help you…"

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End Flashback

Nita smiled to herself, tracing her three-year-old self's hand movements in the air as she remembered her favorite memory of this spot.

She opened her eyes and was brought back to the real world.

The smile lingered on her face for a split second longer, but then the present caught up with her.

Nita placed her forehead against the tree trunk and let her tears flow freely.

She didn't know how long it had been, but she must have drifted off to sleep at some time, as she was awakened suddenly by Kit's voice.

"Nita?"

She looked up from the tree trunk and saw her best friend standing there, a look on his face that she had never seen before.

"Hey, Kit," she said quietly, choking back a sob.

He sat down beside her, looked at her for a moment, then enfolded her in a huge hug.

"Oh, God, Neets… I'm so sorry…"

Nita sighed into his shoulder, choked back another gasping sob, and asked shakily, "Why? You didn't kill her."

Kit looked at her and sighed. "I know how it feels. Really, I do. It… It's horrible. I don't blame you for crying… really, Nita."

He jumped slightly as her hand intertwined with his. He felt himself blushing, then continued, a little faster. "Um… er… it's a process of life, Nita. It happens…"

Nita sniffed. "Yeah, I know," she burst out angrily. "But why did it have to happen _now_? Why? _Why?_"

Kit squeezed her hand, and, apparently not noticing, Nita continued.

"All that hard work… for what? _Three days of life_. It could have at least been a week…"

Kit pulled her into another soothing hug. "Oh… Nita…"

They both heard twigs breaking in the distance, and, unsurprisingly, Dairine, her face drawn and set, sat down beside Kit.

She burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.

"Oh, God… Nita… th-this can't be true…"

Kit, feeling somewhat awkward, gave Dairine a hug as well. Nita held back a sob in favor of a wet snicker at the look of immense discomfort on Kit's face.

Dairine pulled back, tears still trickling down her face as she struggled to stop their steady flow.

"_Damn _it," she swore. "What a _wuss_ I'm being!"

Kit flinched away at Dairine's fierce attitude, but relaxed when she wiped her eyes and looked at Nita.

"Nita… Kit… Daddy wants you at home. C'mon."

Kit stood first, and, pausing, lent Nita a hand. She looked at it, then at him, smiled, and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

Dairine rolled her eyes, sniffed, and dropped her transit circle coordinated to the Callahan house.

Mainly due to the emotional turmoil of the three wizards, the resulting implosion of air sent up a huge geyser of dust that obliterated a few flies and snapped the lower branches off a nearby oak.


	3. Memoir

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Chapter 3

Memoir

Candles burned at the grave site Thursday night, illuminating with a flickering light the cards, flowers, and other items left there by those grieving for Nita's mother and the Callahan family.

Nita knelt by the tombstone, her carefully combed auburn hair tied back in a long ponytail, and placed a pad of Post-its and her mother's favorite pen in front of the grave marker.

"Just in… in case you need a few…more lists… in heaven…" she choked out, her eyes brimming with tears.

"T-tell me how it is up there… Mommy, we miss you…but we'll always love you. Okay?"

Kit felt his eyes tear up as he watched Nita scrawl on the top Post-it the words _We Miss You, Mommy_. His heart went out to Nita as she stood up, wiped her eyes, and paced slowly back to Kit, whispering, "Your turn."

At a loss of what to do, Kit slowly walked up to the tombstone and laid one trembling hand on its smooth marble surface.

"Miz Callahan… it was a great three years knowing you… you were more than just Nita's mom to her… and to me. You supported us when we needed you… you were the one that understood us…exactly when we needed you to… you believed us, you put up with us, and I just wanted to say thank you…"

Kit swallowed and wiped his eyes.

"…and it's a real pity… that's all gone now. Thanks…for everything, Miss Callahan."

Suddenly remembering something, Kit unzipped his otherspace claudication and pulled out a small figure that Nita couldn't make out. He set it atop the headstone, touched it once, and, heaving a huge, shuddering sigh, retreated back to Nita.

Squinting at what now sat on top of the headstone, Nita realized it was a pure white paper crane, and she made a mental note to herself to ask Carmela about it when they got home.

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A/N: For more info on the origami cranes, go to memorial service ended not too long after the speeches were said. Nita, Kit, and Dairine all followed Mr. Callahan back to his landscaping truck, climbed in, and began the half-hour journey home.

Back at the now-deserted memorial site, the paper crane rocked gently in the cool summer breeze that flowed over the cemetery. Perfectly explainable. What was unexplainable about the crane was that it suddenly flapped its wings… once…twice… three times, then fell off the tombstone and landed in the newly replanted grass covering the coffin and the dirt surrounding the casket.


End file.
